While it is easy to get agitated at current flight costs, especially when trying to book a flight to a popular destination during peak travel times, the price of airline tickets today is significantly lower than compared to the mid-century.

“It can’t happen to me”, “this would never happen here” and “the government would never allow things to get that bad”, are arguably thoughts that some Venezuelans had too before the crisis spiralled out of control. In 2001, not that long ago, the country was still amongst the most prosperous nations in Latin America; or at least it appeared that way.

Starting and running a successful business has helped Dave Dahl rebuild his own life. And by creating value in the marketplace, he has also extended that opportunity to others in need of a second chance.

People prefer to deal with those they know, like and trust. Small business can win big on these three fronts. More and more customers will make the choice to buy from small business, especially now that technology, science, efficiency and organizational effectiveness are no longer reserved to big business.

Chicago is proof that there is almost nothing that government entities won’t try to tax. And if you’re a Chicago resident, you might want to think twice before asking Santa for a PlayStation 4 this year, lest you have to deal with the city’s amusement tax.

Booker T. Washington was an advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Taft, his autobiography, Up From Slavery, was a national bestseller, his Tuskegee University producers scientists such as George Washington Carver, and with Andrew Carnegie, he founded America's first national business network. However is story is largely unknown as its been ignored by progressive public education establishment because Booker was a champion of individualism.

Lets just keep it simple. The Earth has stopped warming, at least for now. The outer atmosphere is getting cooler, and not because of CO2 and bovine flatulence. For today's globalist political elites to claim that global warming threatens developing regions the most is nothing but political pandering.

According to Gallup, only 13% of people worldwide say they are engaged in their jobs - they find their work meaningful and look forward to it. Maybe this whole jobs thing might not be working too well. Innovation For Jobs (i4j) is aiming to create a new paradigm.

If we do not have economic freedom, we do not have freedom period. It is sad that protectionism has reached such an ugly state where entrepreneurs now risk being under constant surveillance from the state.

The whine about the wealth of the billionaire class “impoverishing millions of blue collar workers” is a total falsehood. If the common man were impoverished by the billionaires, there would be no billionaires. The shares of Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook would be in freefall to reflect the rising impoverishment of their customers and users. The common man is not only not impoverished, but is actually doing very well.

The Swedish country parson, Anders Chydenius, is a relatively unknown giant among Enlightenment philosophers, economists, and inventors. His ideas written in the 1765 pamphlet, The National Gain, fueled the Swedish economic miracle from 1850-1950, and predated Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Thanks to Chydenius, Sweden was the first country in the world to adopt freedom of the press, 25 years before America's 1st Amendment, cementing economic freedom and political freedom as the co-dependent variables for human flourishing.

Apparently the most financially and ethically bankrupt regions of America are high-output and forward looking populations centers that deserve greater political power. The Brookings Institute is using GDP data and Bachelor Degrees to justify their attack on the US Constitution. They refuse to acknowledge that it is the American federalist system that is fundamental to peaceful human progress.

Central Bankers need to acknowledge how little they know about how their policies affect the economy, and how simplistic and weak their models are. Their failure to do so amounts to creating financial crises deliberately.

One very unequal man transformed a town and a university in ways that will pay handsome dividends for a very long time for hundreds of thousands of people. Isaac Newton surely had people like Swinney in mind when he made his “standing on the shoulders of giants” remark.

In our postmodern culture, the political way has a monopoly on the minds of our youngest thinkers. Connor Boyack is fighting back and reclaiming elementary education for parents, and the teachers of their children, to teach the economic way. The goal is to arm active young minds with the distinction between persuasion and coercion, self-reliance vs. dependence, and how to win their own futures.

Inventive combinations of software and hardware improve everything from grocery shopping to restaurant operations. Software might be essential to these changes, but it’s ultimately the real-world consequences that change consumer behavior, and thereby create new markets.

While many teens find independence through traditional entry-level jobs, like working at fast food restaurants or retail establishments, there are many opportunities for young people to become entrepreneurs even at a young age.

It's well known that the top 1% seize all the income gains. The rest of us stagnate. Isn't that true? Well, no. Who says so? The Congressional Budget Office, which reports periodically on the distribution and growth of the nation's income. It recently found that most Americans had experienced clear-cut income gains since the early 1980s.

Barra gets it backwards. If she wants the “United States” to “lead this transformation” of passenger cars, she should be calling for the “United States” to step aside so that individuals backed by profit-hungry investors can place countless bets on the future of transportation.

Nikola Tesla is a poetic justice warrior for his application of reason to reality, his singular purpose to marry science to practical uses, and his confidence in his ability to do it. He deserves our gratitude.

Many economists make the mistake of looking at economics in terms of the collective, forgetting that the individual is the basis for which all things are possible. And that groups of people are, in reality, not a tangible unit of measurement.

Crucial about this is that the entrepreneurs who get the future right will grow stunningly rich for being right - and making life better and more convenient for the rest of us. Life is cruel when the talented aren't getting rich.

Government schooling has been failing children for years. However, since it is funded through tax dollars, rather than being a product of the market, it is incredibly difficult to keep public schools, and public teachers, accountable. This is precisely why many parents have begun considering other options that are better suited to their children’s educational needs.

A self-taught watch maker and inventor, John Harrison, solved the most perplexing problem of the previous 1600 years - longitude. As trade is essential for mutual cooperation between communities, countries, and continents, safe shipping lowered prices, increased production, created wealth, and benefits everyone.

Hayek hoped we would reject calls for tribal loyalty - what the politicians and talking heads on TV News broadcasts have attempted to frame as "unity" - and, instead, pursue our individual ends, defined by our unique needs and life circumstances. He conceived of a system that relies on general rules of conduct, based on personal morality. But many fail to comprehend how such a system works for everyone.

FIRE savers aim at a sense of control and independence, and have chosen savings as the means. They eliminate a lot of the negative sentiments that come with uncertainty and disappointment from their lives, and they feel good about their life management style today and their prospects for living life on their own terms tomorrow. Ph.D. not required.

Say invented the term "entrepreneur". He advocated for the role of the producer, because producers create markets. If we all devoted more of our energies to the production of goods and services that others find valuable, rather than to our own consumption, we'd drive the market system to even higher levels of betterment for all. "Pick Up The Torch Of Say's Law!"

We are always told that to live in harmony, people must strive for a common end. We must be “united”. This is the device that has been effectively employed by all dictators. To preserve civilization, we must resist the call to unity and pursue our individual ends.

What is really disturbing is not the fact that some have lower income than others, but rather that some have very little. Fortunately, this is where capitalism enters the scene. Our chart paints the spectacular reduction in global extreme poverty over the last few decades.

Each innovation increases our labor productivity, meaning we can do more work more efficiently, reaching our desired standard of living along the way. For entrepreneurs, the latest wave of automation presents new opportunities to disrupt the economy and create a brighter future for everyone.

Poetic justice rewards virtue and punishes vice. It's a spontaneous force of nature. Social justice punishes virtue in order to equalize outcomes. The thinking is that reality is different for everyone. It turns out that real inequality is in the sharing of risk. The loudest proponents of social justice are the ones who do not bear the burden of their risky ideas.

Rules determine chances, but they don’t determine results. Even in a game with equal chances for all players, there will be some winners and some losers. Undeserved disappointments are unavoidable. They may cause a feeling of having been treated unjustly, but no-one has acted unjustly.

The regulatory state goblins are canvassing the neighborhood of private interests with interesting and creative legal angles this Halloween season. And the regulators never bear any of the risks or costs of their laws and lawsuits, regardless of how inane. Their message is clear, don't invest in our regulatory targets.

The prioritization of globalization, GDP growth and consumption growth, and higher education leaves behind many American workers. The leftist elites will not tolerate “any deviation from the borderless, green, multicultural, college-educated, ….consumption-oriented society”.

But these Bird scooters seem too popular with consumers to cower under the first signs of a struggle. After all, Uber and Lyft have both had to endure similar attempts at regulation, but they have managed to survive because consumers vote with their dollars.

Entrepreneurs expect to make mistakes. But what they don't want to do is damn their companies by making two fatal errors at the beginning of the journey. Those blunders fall into the categories of selective hearing and impulsivity.

In February 1962 U.S. nonfarm payroll stood at 55.2 million. Fifty-six years and several major tax cuts later, jobs stand at 149.5 million. Call it basic and universal capitalism. Let’s stick with that, shall we?

Uut of nowhere, the children of the welfare state have developed the feeling that “society” owes them particular things, and that “society” must act to provide them with those things, whether it’s a free education or free healthcare or a job.

Certainly, founders are pivotal people at startups. As their companies grow, however, their importance to the enterprise dwindles. Some entrepreneurs see their companies through for decades; others don't. Ensure that your founder's exit -- should that event occur -- doesn't take the company along with it.

Now, every time a woman is asked to serve on a board of directors, she will wonder whether she is being chosen based on her skills, or because the company in question wants to avoid having to pay a government fine. This is not gender equality.

Democratic socialism is a popular topic in 2018 America, and the Nordic model is frequently hailed as the real-life success story to emulate. Convincing Swedes, Danes, Finns, and Norwegians of that is another story. The real Scandinavian economic success story is brilliant. It occurred in the years 1850-1950, and it was spearheaded by a Renaissance man by the name of Anders Chydenius in 1763.

And while voting might not be the end all be all when it comes to safeguarding individual freedom, inhibiting big governments from meddling in elections serves to give further power to the individual by ensuring their unique vote is properly accounted for.

The Federal Reserve's sacred 2% inflation target is now supported by a 2% Fed Funds rate. Unfortunately the 2% GDP growth new normal isn't playing nice, coming in at 4%. Innovation and economic freedom are the fly in the econometric ointment.

College campus life is already reeling from the effects of college admission racial quotas. Now International Pronoun Day activists are throwing salt on the wounds by expanding geometrically the number of possible identity groups. In a desperate appeal to dignity, the entire premise of the project is dissected in terms of reason, purpose, and self-respect. In other words, life-affirming values.

Little words matter a lot. As cultures evolve so do languages. New words and meanings are added while others are dropped. Nouns and verbs may change most, but it is not a good idea to override pronouns in conformity with changing social pressures. Authoritarianism begins with people's attempts to control the ideological and linguistic territory.

When Uber and Lyft first hit the market, it completely revolutionized the concept of “hailing” a cab. And while the ridesharing industry has offered us safe and reliable alternatives to the outdated cab industry, innovation is constant.

Americans are more inclined to found companies than the people of other countries and are also better at turning small companies into giant ones. The U.S. was the first country to make it easy to create companies without going cap in hand to local bureaucrats who had a right to tell them what to do.

Since the sea is unclaimed territory, creating medical facilities, whether on ships or floating islands, allows medical innovators to bypass the regulatory processes that are keeping patients from receiving the care they need.

Digital eye exams offered through companies like Opternative and subscription-based services like Hubble are helping to decentralize vision coverage, making it more affordable and accessible to everyone, whether they have insurance or not.

Brexiteers are the provincial artisan class, the butcher, baker, mechanic, hairdresser, cabbie, carpenter. People who do a real job, folks with patriotic traditional values laced with common sense. They outnumber bureaucrats, politicians, bankers and the metropolitan chattering classes.

Rising inequality in terms of wealth is a sign of shrinking lifestyle inequality between the rich and poor. Think about it. Entrepreneurs generally amass great wealth by virtue of mass-producing the goods and services previously only enjoyed by the rich.

Pretending to use concepts of justice to limit individual achievement Is simply the ideology of socialism: to achieve total control over society because the governing elites believe it is in their power to design and determine future outcomes.

If a frog turns right and catches a fly, and then turns left and catches a fly, and then turns around backward and catches a fly, the purpose of the frog has to do not with turning left or right or backward but with catching flies.

The power of the individual is, perhaps, one of the strongest forces on the planet. Like a ripple in the water, the action of one can cause a domino effect, where more and more individuals join together.

Economists should hang their heads in shame. They believe that economic growth causes inflation. Such a view isn’t serious, and is more realistically dangerous. Inflation is easily the greatest enemy of growth.

gain, there can be no denying that theft of any manner is morally reprehensible, but when comparing the hackers' crime against the routine criminal acts committed by the state, there is hardly a difference between the two: except that hackers at least make the process of submitting to extortion as easy as possible.

To put America back on a prosperous path that would also potentially lead to lower recidivism rates, it is imperative that we remove barriers to opportunity and reform occupational licensing laws so that those who are willing to work are able to do so.

Venezuela is a disaster; this is an indisputable fact. When people are eating their pets to avoid starvation, something has gone horribly wrong. And while this type of horror is typical of socialist regimes that deny the sanctity of the individual, there are still many defenders of socialism who pretend that Venezuela is an outlier instead of a prime example.

The term "social Justice" is a dishonest insinuation that one ought to agree to a demand of some special interest which can give no real reason for it. It's the mark of demagogy or cheap journalism which responsible thinkers ought to be ashamed to use.

One thing is for certain, however, no matter how many fines and regulations are instituted, the incentive to earn money overpowers the threat of government force. And Miami Beach residents are proving that the sharing economy market will not be stopped.

Entrepreneurial small businesses won't wait 10 or 20 years to see how the trade wars shake out. They will act now, relying on all their innovative wit to navigate an increasingly treacherous economic landscape.

In 2016, Washington residents voted to increase the minimum wage incrementally from $9.47 an hour to $13.50 an hour by 2020. For Advent Lutheran Child Center in Spokane Valley, the minimum wage increase meant an inevitable increase in tuition costs, which has left many parents shocked and concerned.

As a child, each day when she came home from school, Blakely's father would ask her if she had experienced failure. If she said no, he would express disappointment. Complete lack of failure meant she wasn’t pushing herself to her limits.

Entrepreneurs will find ways to disrupt every industry -- it’s simply a matter of time. The lingering question is whether organizations will embrace the evolution or fight tooth and nail to avoid change. Disruption might be an inevitability, but industries that stubbornly stick to the old way of doing things are only making the process more painful.

A lot of time passes before the capitalist receives income from the consumer, and the entire process is subject to risk and uncertainty. The capitalists receive their reward because of waiting and of bearing risks and uncertainties, while the wage earners receive their remuneration regularly long before the product reaches the final consumer.

What is known is that this country has a major spending problem, one that will continue to grow worse until the American people begin demanding government accountability. After all, none of these vital scientific studies would be possible without the taxpayers footing the bill.

So next time you find yourself stepping on a stray Lego left on the floor, pause before getting angry, and think about the journey that little brick has gone through to get from Billund, Denmark to the floor of our American homes. By constantly striving for excellence, utilizing specialization, and becoming creative storytellers, Lego has proven itself relevant in the digital era.

On the other hand, where the government has failed to help those in need, the private sector has been revolutionizing the way we view charity. And when it comes to alleviating food insecurity, one woman has created an app that is using blockchain technology to connect those with excess food to those who need it most.

Liberal, freedom, justice, and value add up to capitalism. This equation will easily repel another ill conceived coup spearheaded by JUST Capital, their banker Goldman Sachs, and their sanctimonious board of directors.

The right-to-work movement has cause for celebration, as last week’s landmark decision by the Supreme Court has ushered in a new era of freedom of association, signaling the end of an era of union intimidation. In a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Mark Janus, in the case of Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“Economics was everywhere and politics nowhere” was a phrase used to describe this productive, energetic, innovative, decentralized trading nation in the mid nineteenth century. What a wonderful picture of economic freedom unencumbered by political extraction is conjured up by that description.

Any system that allows the state to determine whose life is more valuable than others should be avoided at all costs. Jim Carrey would do well to think twice before praising a socialized medicine in the future.

Prior to the South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. ruling, states were prohibited from collecting taxes from companies that did not have a physical location therein. This new ruling overturns the 1992 case of Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which, in the earlier days of the internet, had protected online retailers without physical brick and mortar establishments. But all this has changed now.

Sen. Bernie Sanders recently claimed that the increase in wages last year “nets out to zero” because of inflation and that “the average American worker today, despite the strong economy, is not getting ahead.” He's wrong.

Computing power and innovation are giving investors more choice and lower costs. "Smart beta," or factor based quantitative investing offers new access to the proven dimensions of investment returns. This allows everyone to benefit from the price mechanism of efficient markets.

If we wish for those in developing countries to be elevated out of poverty, the answer is a resounding no, banning sweatshops would not benefit workers. It would, however, perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

There are two roads to take when a major corporation is faced with a diversity fueled media backlash. They can cower to the pressure of politically expediency or they can take a stand for the virtues that made them successful in the first place, and differentiate their brand in an even more positive way.

More and more the value of a college degree is dwindling. And this is a good thing. Recently, Apple announced that it will join 14 other major employers in dropping the college degree requirement for job applicants.

Friedrich Hayek's signature achievement, the Road to Serfdom, was published 75 years ago, and its ideas are as relevant as ever, but who would know? In the e-book A New Perspective on the Road to Serfdom, Brittany Hunter translates its most important lessons to the Millennial generation highlighting its overriding theme - only you own your life.

It is likely that China will not be the only government to take such extreme measures against crypto-related activities, but just because we receive pushback from the powers that be does not mean we should abandon our quest altogether.

Forcibly taking money from one source in order to give it to another is not benevolence, no matter how great the cause in question may be. And while many leftists do not agree with this premise, they also do not like when their favorite products are altered thanks to taxation.

But where government intervention has failed the health care sector, free market innovation has become its savior. The rising costs of health care in both North America and Europe have actually created a void in the marketplace. And medical tourism is filling that void by offering a whole new avenue of choice for health care consumers.

Successful high achievers who feel like frauds are experiencing the Impostor Syndrome. Conversely, frauds who believe themselves worthy of dominion over others are immune from this condition. In both cases, this unhealthy self-awareness can have debilitating effects on societies.

Unfortunately, other countries do not take kindly to trade barriers being arbitrarily placed on imported goods. And in many instances, when these types of policies are instituted, foreign countries respond by creating their own tariffs on American goods in retaliation. This is exactly what is happening now. The European Union is moving forward with new tariffs targeted at denim, orange juice, bourbon, motorcycles, peanut butter, motorboats, and cigarettes.

“Getting 100,000 miles out of a car in the 1970s was cause for celebration,” economist Steven Horwitz wrote in a 2015 paper. “Not getting 100,000 miles out of a car today is cause to think you bought a lemon.”

There is almost nothing the sharing economy cannot provide for the consumer. From inexpensive rides and cheap short-term lodging alternatives to food delivery and even puppies on demand, this organic market force has become a huge source of convenience in our lives.

The new model-driven business has no organization and no process. It has data, algorithms and models, continuously learning and improving based on consumer input, without the hands or preferences or slow decision-making of managers and executives or the concrete pathways of business process software getting in the way.

Power is a devastatingly addictive device. Once a person becomes consumed by the quest for power, individuals become nothing more than pawns to be sacrificed in the name of maintaining order and control.

Efficiency, effectiveness and financial and business performance no longer have anything to do with size or scale. The entire economics of scale have changed. What we learned in school no longer applies. We need to unlearn it if we are to have any hope of understanding the future.

While it may not be obvious to Krugman, Bitcoin’s appeal comes from very fact that it is not controlled by governments or the central banks. It could also very well make the role of central banks completely irrelevant in the near future.

Controlling the linguistic territory is the first objective toward authoritarian dominance, and it quickly worms its way into economics and finance. After all, economics is about life's values. Now, value investing has been commandeered and redefined as creating value for the future of humankind. It is a categorical imperative. It is a duty.

The state of California claims that unregulated competition hurts the restaurant industry and those who have obtained all the proper permits. However, individuals engaging in voluntary exchanges have every right to take those risks if that is their prerogative. Government-issued permits do not ensure safety. If they did, there would be zero incidences of food contamination or food poisoning at restaurants.

The truth of the matter is, the Great Depression cannot be pinned on one particular thing alone. In fact, there were a series of unfortunate occurrences that ultimately led to, and prolonged, the Great Depression.

The best way to combat bad ideas is with good ideas. And by allowing a plethora of different opinions to be circulated on social media, you give individuals the opportunity to judge the merits of each opinion and ultimately make their own decision.

Country Time Lemonade just announced that it is assembling a team dedicated to protecting child-run lemonade stands. “Legal-Aide,” as it is so appropriately named, will help children launch their lemonade businesses by providing financial assistance to those met with licensing obstacles.

Everyone is familiar with the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Yet, as much as we have oft heard this phrase recited, few of us actually make use of this wisdom.

Entrepreneurs are theorists of the future. Theories are counterfactual. They are not based on data or research. They can’t be, because you can’t research what doesn’t exist. Theories open up previously unseen paths.

While most of the products in this museum appear to be duds, each one taught their respective innovators a valuable lesson about the market process. For Coca-Cola and Heinz, both companies learned that sticking to their original recipes was more beneficial when it came to sales revenue. With each failure comes a lesson that, in the end, has resulted in a win for the consumer.

But by understanding the root causes of a historical crisis as severe as the Great Depression, we stand a better chance at recognizing the potential for similar events to occur today. And if we know what warning signs to look for, we also stand a better chance at preventing future economic crises from occurring altogether.

Almost every aspect of our lives has been completely reshaped by technology. Where we once had to go out into the real world in order to meet new people and build relationships, we now use algorithms and smartphone apps instead. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin have also completely redefined the way we view money and the entire financial world. But the implications of technological advancement can be felt in almost every sphere of our day to day lives, including our professional lives.

Freedom and the free enterprise economy need to find their own intellectuals who can escape 19th century socialist ideas, and make the application of technology to help the weakest in a free society once more an intellectual adventure, and a deed of courage.

As we contemplate the consequences that such protectionist policies may have on our modern economy, we would be wise to take a sober look at history. For if we take a closer look at the causes that led to, and prolonged, the Great Depression, we will find that tariffs played a most important and destructive role.

The wind energy lobby and their political elites need cheap money and phony economics to sell the public on extremely expensive energy projects. The hubris of these enterprises is an open book for all activists against crony corporatism.

Toys R Us isn’t likely to be the last brick and mortar casualty of the virtual revolution. But we needn’t be discouraged by these changes. The market will always evolve and change to meet the needs of consumers. And while jobs might be temporarily lost, new jobs will always be created as part of the market process.

I’m not alone in my love for this fatty beverage. “Bulletproof coffee,” as it’s called, has become a huge dietary trend over the last few years. But for Wisconsin residents who share my love of rich, full-fat, butter coffee, buying Kerrygold grass-fed butter within state lines just became a difficult and illegal act.

Israel is a country surrounded by hostile militants and in control of meager natural resources. Its strategy is to tap into the only resource that matters, the power of the human mind, and get out of the way. Its a matter of survival. This confounds the statist orthodoxy, and is ignored.

By treating health care as a mass product, Shetty has been able to increase the quality of care, while making it financially accessible to a wider range of people. Instead of looking to government to fix our health care system, we should be looking to innovators like Dr. Devi Shetty.

Entrepreneurs are individuals with novel theories about the future. Theorizing is not the mere processing of existing data. It’s not analytical (that’s what machines do). It’s uniquely creative. It’s an act of supposing, conceiving and considering new possibilities.

Prior to the passing of the Wagner Act, workers were free to either join a labor union or abstain from joining altogether. But after its passage in 1935, this freedom of association was done away with.

The American people are not united on much these days, or so it would seem. However, if you wanted to give Americans a reason to unite against their leader, threatening their Amazon Prime accounts would be a surefire way.

Calling owner-managers of very small businesses “self-employed” is doing all of society a disservice. Employment is the assignment to carry out specific tasks (or produce a set of fairly standardized outcomes) within an existing business. Entrepreneurs must create value. They can't offer standardized goods or services in a standard way.

Stanislav Petrov was working the overnight shift on September 26, 1983 when he inadvertently saved the world from nuclear war. Today he serves as a reminder that one individual can make an enormous difference.

Grandiose social programs for solving urban poverty accomplish something else. Instead of offering proven economic solutions, they stroke the egos of the donor and government agency class to keep them relevant. They also deflect attention away from the unspeakable root causes.

We've been persuaded to think of Silicon Valley as a pinnacle of innovative technologies and the home of the leaders of the tech revolution. George Gilder thinks they're delusional and will soon be replaced.

There is this belief that by intervening and implementing the New Deal, FDR saved Americans from the depths of the Great Depression. But in fact, the opposite was true. FDR’s New Deal actually prolonged the Depression and made it far worse than it otherwise would have been.

The government should never be responsible for picking losers and winners. The taxi industry has failed to evolve and innovate over the years, which has allowed ridesharing services to fill a void in the market. Instead of being praised for their success, ridesharing services are being punished while taxi industries are being rewarded for failing to innovate.

The Tour de France is more than a sporting spectacle. It features real life examples of the things that matter for human flourishing such as teamwork, specialization, and the thinking that leads to long-term peace and prosperity.

A governing body that tries to control an entire economy will soon find they do not have enough knowledge or insight to do so. As Hayek reminds us, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

Jerry Seinfeld said, “I don’t want my money to work hard, I want it to relax.” He is onto something. It can take a lot of work to get things very wrong. Those who place their faith in unreliable data sets built on self-fulfilling prophecies, and those who ignore the consequences of government interference, can be blindsided.

Kids are not going to be able to relate to terms like time preference and opportunity cost. The words aren't right for them. And the concepts are too abstract. They need to be clearly grounded in a world that kids understand. A different creative strategy is needed. Enter The Tuttle Twins.

While the last article addressed the concept of the knowledge problem and how Wales had specifically set out to solve this problem. But in addition to making information accessible to all those who seek it, Wales also incorporated another aspect of Hayekian economics when he created Wikipedia: spontaneous order.

Last Summer, UC Berkeley was forced to remove over 20,000 lectures, videos, and other digital documents from its free online library. While the prestigious school had been generous in making its electronic resources available to the public, a violation of the Americans with Disability Act has left the University with no other choice but to remove the online archive in its entirety.

Wikipedia has become a staple in each of our lives. No matter what information we may be in search of, Wikipedia either provides what we are looking for or offers a great launching off point to further research. And while most of us routinely use the site to aid us on our quest for knowledge, few know that the site was born out of a deep respect for the work of economist, F.A. Hayek.

People make decisions based on the values they hold most dear. Those might be family values related to happiness, health and economic security. Or they may be the achievement ethics of hard work and duty. Or they may be broader values regarding helping others, or even saving the world through charity and conservation. All the economic choices people make are shaped by their values.

Old Havana is rich in the history of the Cuba, and distant reminders of its former sense of life. Light is finally shining on the creative and resilient people of Cuba who have spent the last 60 years faking loyalty to their socialist masters. Cuba's Lost Generation are now in their 50s, ready to show the world their resilience as did Hemingway's Lost Generation of 100 years ago.

“What do I know?” Today, you can answer: I am a person with access to any knowledge I need and to tools of immense power. I am networked to virtually everyone in the world, who can provide knowledge, resources, and collaboration on any issue. All resources are accessible to me.

For charitable individuals, giving back to their communities should not be an act that is tightly regulated by government entities. Instead, these volunteers should be met with open arms and positivity from state entities, rather than being demonized unless they have first sought the government’s seal of approval.

Nicholas “Kush God” Cunningham might be the most brilliant businessman in Washington, DC. He saw a gap in the market and seized the opportunity to make a profit even though he’s had to fight the State every step of the way.

By cutting off Cuba from the American market, we are feeding into the same rhetoric perpetrated by dictators past and present. The only way to encourage the liberation of Cuba is to show them that the market is the greatest liberator of all.

To fully understand why the Great Depression began, and why it lasted so long, it is important to consider the many different factors that contributed to this economic downturn of historical proportions. In this first part of the series, we will focus on understanding the Austrian business cycle and the role it played in the crash of 1929.

Governments love to think inside the box. In fact, they are almost incapable of operating in any other fashion. But this has led to major inefficiencies, which, in the case of the USPS, have become too expensive to ignore.

We are losing the desire, the hunger, the sense of exploration and risk to make the world a better place. The energy comes from individual entrepreneurs, innovators, founders and researchers. The more we suppress such individualism, the more the decivilization process accelerates.

The inflow of investment funds creates valuable assets, such as more machines, more factories, and increased research and development. This raises the productivity of labor (causing wages to rise), improves work conditions, and generates greater output. Americans’ standard of living increases.

America slowly but surely lost her sense of robust private ownership, the soul of a free society. It happened through the tax and regulatory state, jettisoning economic substantive due process, absurd readings of the Commerce Clause, and through the creation of wildly extra-constitutional administrative agencies.

While Sputnik Monroe always maintained that money was his main motivator behind his actions, he is single-handedly responsible for the desegregation of Ellis Auditorium, making it the first integrated public gathering place in the Jim Crow south.

With such an abundance of words, the English language allows us the opportunity to better communicate our thoughts and feelings with others. Along those same lines, allowing for more options in a free and spontaneous marketplace allows consumers more options to better suit their personalized needs.

People study the nature of things to understand possibilities and manage risk. The currency of the scientist, economist, and entrepreneur is reality. Complex systems like cancer are being confronted with a new network of enemies armed with and old theorem.

True market competition terrifies established industries that have gotten too comfortable in their specialized fields and now refuse to innovate. Occupational licensing rigs the game against hardworking individuals, who, as a result, are the ones who end up paying the highest price.

On paper, Raelee Nicholson would seem like the perfect candidate for a four-year college. Scoring in the 88th percentile on her college boards and receiving straight A’s in all of her honors courses, Nicholson is an excellent student. But as summer approaches and her years spent at her public high school in the south of Pittsburgh come to an end, Nicholson is not getting ready to start at a four-year university. In fact, she isn’t even planning on enrolling at a community college.

The emergence of a managerial class was aimed at eliminating the influence of owners and shareholders. Much of the industry that has grown up around managerial processes, "strategy", consulting and business school studies is just an accumulation of additional managerial costs and expanded managerial staffing, with no consumer value.

The increase resulted in a minimum wage that was greater than 75 percent of the Puerto Rican median wage. In fact, the situation grew so dire, unemployment in Puerto Rico surged and its GDP per capita declined by almost 7 percent between 2007 and 2013.

Grueling science has taught us that the relationship between space and time is like a flexible fabric that should be understood and appreciated. Science also teaches us that the relationship between creative minds and free markets is also a flexible fabric, but need not be so grueling to discover.

The decision to launch Paving for Pizza was born out of an unmet demand in the marketplace. The government was failing to meet the needs of drivers on the road, which in turn was inhibiting Domino’s ability to live up to its promise of offering quality products to its consumers.

Critics like to characterize individualists as hermits, unwilling to work with the rest of society and preoccupied with their own self-interest. To be sure, self-interest does play an integral role in the classical liberal tradition. But this does not make its followers antisocial by any means. In fact, without society, our self-interests could not feasibly be served. And without self-interest, society’s ends could not be met either.

Without the hierarchical power of coercive government, policy-makers would have no policies to make, and there would be no wheeling and dealing with capital owners. The former would need to contribute to the economy rather than be a burden on it, and the latter would be strictly servants of consumers.

Without the ability to govern ourselves, it leaves an opening for the government to swoop in and assume responsibility for our lives. This might be why so many individualists and liberty-minded people are also deeply interested in the field of self-improvement and personal growth: One of the best ways to teach others that government force is not needed is to show how self-sufficient we can be without it.

Friedrich Hayek believed that there will never be good money again until it is taken out of the hands of government. “All we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.”

As consumers of knowledge, we can no longer be passive. Knowing is a practice at which we can each improve our capability. Knowledge entrepreneurs are creating new ways of developing, diffusing, and using knowledge, and devices are giving us new means of access and engagement.

Before Uber came to town in 2014, Austin Police Department’s data showed that the city had an average of 525 drunk driving arrests per month. When these numbers were revisited a year after ridesharing came to Austin, drunk driving arrests had dropped by five percent. This trend continued the following year when the number of drunk driving arrests dropped by an additional 12 percent, bringing the average number of arrests to about 438 per month.

The student loan crisis is a serious issue in this country, especially for the many Millennials struggling to make monthly student loan payments. It is currently estimated that 70 percent of all Americans graduating with bachelor’s degrees will leave college with a burden of debt on their shoulders. Left with the prospect of making student loan payments for years after they finish their degrees, many students are looking for new avenues to fund their education that does not require federal student loans.

Before demonizing these garment factories, and throwing around the term, “sweatshop,” it is important to consider how they contribute to the lives of their workers. We need to judge these work environments by standards which may be foreign to our own. After all, most places are not as prosperous as America.

Victor Hugo asks, "Who set cold white panes in place of that stained glass of gorgeous hue? An architect, on the plea of good taste, amputated it." And one might also ask, what has become of the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution, the one that guarantees federalism? Our progressive masters, on the plea of the common good, amputated it.

When we allow children to be children, what we are really allowing them to do is become their own unique individuals. Laws that prohibit children from being independent do little but squash this spirit of individualism and increase a child’s need for arbitrary authority. But thanks to Utah, we might soon be seeing more states protecting the rights of free-range children.

Capitalism is best thought of as a system of co-ordination, bringing consumer demand and producer output into alignment. It’s a system of dynamic efficiency, using feedback to get better and better at service. Entrepreneurs who follow the collaboration metaphor are the ones who will succeed.

Interestingly enough, the closure of China Fun coincided with the implementation of New York’s new increased minimum wage policy, which is set to incrementally rise each year until it reaches $15 an hour by 2021. As Albert Wu, the son of China Fun owners Dorothea and Felix Wu explained, these types of costly mandates have forced the restaurant to significantly raise its prices over the years.

I learned that a sense of entitlement is a burden. People who believe themselves above something, or entitled to something more because of past achievements, will find that new opportunities slip away.

Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly informal, extralegal ownership to a formal, unified legal property system. In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is also what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth.

The forthcoming series, Hardfork is unlike any other series around today. Set in a dystopian future, the series incorporates blockchain and cryptocurrencies into its storyline. The series tells the story of a radical group of rebels who utilize blockchain technology in order to hack the powers that be in order to bring the entire system down. But its content alone isn’t what makes it so spectacular. Hardfork is also the first series whose funding is being raised solely in cryptocurrency.

Don't try to predict the future. Try to anticipate possibilities, achieving balance between competing priorities, and capacity for risk. Be flexible. A heart rate monitor is a tool to that helps the user find the optimal energy zone for long-term health and vitality. Economic tools for investing perform a similar function.

This analysis also makes it clear that the policy outcomes will not change when different individuals are elected. The same voting mechanisms and the same bureaucratic response to special interest influence will prevail. There’s no point to throwing the bums out. Democracy itself is a sham.

The sobering reality is that a person’s lot in life will be largely determined by these trades between current self and future self. As much as we like to blame others for our failure, the trades we make with ourselves are likely to be far more significant than outside circumstances or conditions.

As new technology emerges, there is always less of a need, and thus less consumer demand, for older and outdated models. The carriage was replaced by the car, manual labor was replaced by industrial machinery, the typewriter was replaced by the computer, and Blockbuster Video was replaced by Netflix. The key thing to remember is that with each of these innovative changes, the consumer won by gaining access to better goods and services.

Today's category-of-one brands are dominated by businesses creating amazing new technology. But these businesses can quickly morph from a network of prolific entrepreneurs to a hierarchy of opportunists. As such, the largest big data firms have rejected the entrepreneurial principles of individualism and free markets.

Instead of arguing amongst each other and using hyperbole to further political agendas, the American people would be wise to realize that the mere existence of state power will always leave individuals open to an oppression that reeks of dystopia.

All actions have consequences, and when those actions are meant to control the economy, the consequences can have far reaching implications. In his essay “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen,” French economist Frédéric Bastiat explained that all government actions have consequences that are both immediately seen, and also consequences that are unseen.

If we want to teach our children to be self-sufficient adults, we must teach them the beauty of entrepreneurship. Wealth creation is what makes the world go round. We should be teaching our children the beauty of earning money, not demonizing it.

Currently, 19 states reserve the right to strip you of your occupational license if you default on your student loans. If you strip someone of their ability to work, you are not increasing the likelihood that they will pay the loan back. In fact, you are making it increasingly difficult to do so.

Airbnb has completely changed the way we think about travel. And while the Silicon Valley brainchild has become a household name over the last several years, you might be surprised to learn that a custom seat cushion played an integral role in the story of Airbnb’s founding.

These investors also hope to promote sustainable living by teaching locals how to grow their own food and produce renewable energy. But it does not end there, by introducing the people of Puerto Rico to the crypto economy, these investors hope to help the locals safeguard their financial futures. The hope is that “Sol” becomes one of the first cities to completely adopt the burgeoning crypto economy, setting the way for the rest of the world.

The expert plan for enhancing Velib bike-sharing has earned a lot of detractors and so it will get more expert planning. Iowa has earned a lot of fans for its hospitality, rolling terrain, and network of two lane paved roads. They were never planned for cycling and no one complains.

The drive for “political neutrality” is near the heart of socialist philosophy. Socialism aims to treat society as a science experiment, in which its subjects – human minds – are closed to unforeseen changes in information. Since we humans cannot immediately “explain ourselves,” socialism has to envision the world as a completely static picture. This is the only way political “neutrality” can be exercised.

Unfortunately for those who see the state as the sole solution to every problem, they neglect to acknowledge the plethora of information that surrounds them daily, proving that just because the government does offer a service, doesn’t mean they should, nor does it mean they are the most competent at doing so.

Just as a capital good’s price point in a free market would be based on its marginal productivity, in wrestling, pay is based on the character’s popularity with the audiences and their ability to sell merchandise, which, at the end of the day is making more money for the company.

There can be no doubt that Senator Sanders has only the best of intentions when it comes to his employment proposal. Most of us would all like to see lower rates of unemployment across the country. But that does not mean we ignore economic realities in order to chase the dream of “employment for all.”

While Millennials may have a warm regard for the fuzzy idea of social sharing, and while they may casually link that idea with socialism in their minds, they are failing to think clearly because they are neglecting to define their terms with precision.

Without crypto pioneers like Beccy and Austin, Bitcoin would have never obtained the level of success it already has. It takes individuals, and the communities those individuals make up to change hearts and minds.

We must produce before we consume. In a healthy economy, business drives economic activity by building capital goods, making things, developing services, innovating and hiring. Consumer spending is a result of business activity, not a cause.

What many fail to recognize is that spontaneous order not only exists in the marketplace, examples of it exist all around us in the real world. The following are five examples of spontaneous order appearing in everyday situations.

As the blockchain begins to be embraced by more people, it is opening up a new frontier for entrepreneurs. The 4th Pillar is just one of many organizations that have identified a way in which the blockchain can be used to make our lives easier and more efficient.

Regular folks will question central banks and other institutions. These institutions did not exist at one point in the past, and we won’t need them in the future. And then, having done away with financial institutions, we’ll start to question the need for the institution of government.

While the workplace is a voluntary obligation, it is also one that is not immune to market demand. If organizations want to appeal and retain younger employees, they will need to adjust their models to meet the needs of individual employees.

Historically, April 15th has been the day that Americans dread all year long. And while most of us were relieved at the prospect of having a few extra days to worry about getting our taxes filed this year, few of us bothered to ask why tax day had been moved.

Innovation used to be thought of as a scientific or technical process competence of skilled innovation producers. Now, innovation is a social competence practiced by those who are good at social networking. Innovation is socially embedded co-creation. The social network can include people, knowledge, devices and software. It is socio-technical.

According to research done by Marijuana Business Daily, 36 percent of the industry’s executive positions are held by women. On its face value this may not appear to be a giant leap forward for womankind, but when compared to other fields it becomes obvious that there is something truly unique about women in the marijuana industry.

Everyone of us has a hierarchy of needs. When we feel good about what we have attained at one level, we can move up to the next, and tackle something greater – a higher value. The entrepreneur can take the consumer on that journey to higher and higher values. It’s a collaborative climb to the top.

Healthy competition makes every single one of us better. It allows us to come to terms with our limitations so that we may push ourselves to achieve bigger, better things. And it is precisely this competition that fuels market innovation. But unfortunately, competition is not always preferable for businesses that have been around forever and thus, feel as though they have earned some sort of market tenure.

Over the last decade, college tuition has risen over 40 percent across the board. With such a drastic increase in tuition, many students have turned to the government to subsidize their education costs. However, with the total amount of American student loan debt now surpassing the total amount of American credit card debt, there can be no denying that there is something seriously wrong with our system of higher education.

Margrethe Verstager is a lifetime professional politician. She has always followed the political way, never the economic way.People like her, and the extractive political commissions like the one she heads, are a threat not just to innovation but also to the civilized open institutional framework that makes it possible.

Freedom now means freedom from want, equality means equality of outcomes, and progress means political correctness. That’s how today’s social justice warriors have been taught to think. That they allow themselves to be mobilized so easily is evidence of their fealty to their postmodernist masters.

Increasingly, the best talent is all over the world, so increasingly the whole idea is the guy who wins is the guy who pulls together the best team wherever they come from, and actually knows what they are doing, and finds the signal in the noise, and gets out there first. And, if you can do that, you can create a billion-dollar business today.

The ridesharing sector wants to ban private ownership of vehicles. This is extremely dangerous and can only lead to further restrictions that lead towards public, rather than private ownership of market commodities.

For those of us sick of waiting on hold to speak to an IRS representative ever year, this is a game changer. Though it might not fully abolish the bitter feelings tax season arouses within us all, this is definitely an example of the free market making bureaucracy more tolerable.

By its very definition socialism exists when the state controls the means of production. However, this definition does not apply to the Nordic model. In these countries, the means of production are primarily owned by private entities and not the government, something Sanders is strictly opposed to.

Hierarchies are power structures in which you don’t have any power. To join a hierarchy is to abase oneself. Replace hierarchical power relationships by quality of connection in networks of your choice. How much value are you giving and how much are you getting in return?

There is a reason so many prominent entrepreneurs take a deep interest in the self-improvement genre: It is essential to professional growth and success. And with personal growth comes the power to truly change the world.

The Entrepreneurial attitude is active management of your life path while bearing the future uncertainty, whether as business owner / founder or in another role. You will actively navigate your own career, making frequent changes and taking new pathways as you pursue new opportunities.

When humans are left to their own devices amazing things happen. We need to trust in our ability to work together without government interference, just like my classmates trusted their ability to play a soccer without ushering in the end of the world.

We must look, with optimism, beyond the present to the difficulty our adversaries will have sustaining their systems over time. And if their systems come undone in the next decade or the one after, Russia and China will face extreme instability.

While many would applaud his drive and entrepreneurial spirit, the county has instead chosen to reprimand Chandler and his roommates for earning a living without first seeking the government’s permission.

This “citizen score,” as it is called would essentially act like a credit score on steroids, limiting your ability to make choices for yourself. This plan is already well on its way to building this social credit system to rate China’s 1.3 billion citizens.

Through a genius marketing strategy and an appreciation of the entrepreneurial spirit, the Girl Scouts have been able to turn a mediocre line of cookies into a phenomenally successful all-around customer experience.

In a world where government regulations make it increasingly difficult to start companies, young Americans have used technology to get ahead in the business world. One of the means which has allowed Millennials to make use of their entrepreneurial spirit is “crowdfunding."

By allowing employers to hire the best of the best, and employees to go where their skills are most appreciated, we are able to chart our own courses more so than at any other point in history. This has fostered an environment where the road to serfdom is abandoned in favor of the road to individualism.

Entrepreneurs should seek unique knowledge, make a unique benefit promise to customers, identify a niche that no-one else has identified, and generally be comfortable with being the only occupier of a commercial space. Initially they might be viewed as crazy or taking excessive risk or out on a limb.

It has become increasingly hard for middle-class Americans to get financially ahead in our current economic climate. Single-income households are not as common as they used to be and almost everyone is looking for a side hustle. Many people are asking themselves: why not choose cryptoassets?

The unit of analysis for economics is the individual. If economics is to be a useful science, it will help individuals to make better decisions for themselves, in the context of productive collaboration with others. Let’s just help shed light on good economic decision making.

Is it possible to live the entrepreneurial life when employed by a firm? Yes (despite what Taleb believes) because the entrepreneurial life is an attitude and a style and a way of managing the future that you can bring to any context.

Taking responsibility, including moral and ethical responsibility as well as financial responsibility, for the downside risk of one’s entrepreneurial efforts is what holds society together. It is transparency and honesty and authenticity. It is the honorable life, the only one worth living.

For several years, Dr. Josh Umbehr has been sending emails to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos every other week. An admitted “fanboy,” of Bezos and his successful business endeavors, Umbehr believes Amazon has the potential to completely change the way consumers purchase prescription drugs.

Patreon has brought that same principle into the modern world. Now, independent journalist, writers, vloggers, and other artists are able to produce work while accepting funds from patrons who have a vested interest in the work. This has helped many make lucrative careers while pursuing what they love to do.

There is not a single trade that is not governed by legislation, bureaucratic rule making, taxes, tariffs or subsidies or political adjustments of some kind. No boat can sale, no plane can fly, no truck can deliver without political permission. Giant global bureaucracies make sure that not a single transaction can be made without a specific permission within their rule making.

I had the fortunate pleasure of growing up surrounded by supremely talented musicians. Raised in a community where music was highly valued, I was exposed to a wide variety of instruments and genres. But what was most exciting about this in hindsight, was the lessons music taught me about spontaneous order.

While the public education system has done much to disappoint many Americans over the years, it is no wonder that the millennial generation accustomed to choice in every aspect of their lives, favors more educational opportunities for their own children.

Who am I? What do I believe? What are my values? These are the questions entrepreneurs ask of themselves before they embark on any kind of project. Who do I want to help? How can I understand their need?

From the days of large corporations, big factories, and mass-produced branded products and services, we are now headed towards a miniaturized, customized, co-developed future. Factories, farms and energy flows are miniaturizing. Add your unique recipe, and you've miniaturized the expert economy.

Capitalism has allowed wealth to be created while also creating abundant value in the lives of all those who reap the benefits of innovation: which is every single actor involved in the market process, both consumer and creator.

Entrepreneurs exercise a uniquely human form of imagination, based on unique knowledge that only they possess. They imagine a state of affairs that does not exist today, that they believe they can bring to fruition in the future as a result of their own actions. This is not the extrapolation of existing data. This is creativity

Fortunately, thanks to the technological advances we have seen during our lifetimes there are now alternatives to earning a four-year degree that might actually help you get ahead in the job market while saving time and money.

Entrepreneurs are creative. They find new ideas, either in their own heads or from others. They will gather and assess all the ideas, test the ones with most promise, measure the outcomes, and advance the ones with best results.

Progressives' goal is the entire reconstruction of society, and their views are a threat to civilization, says Hayek. Conservatives err when they try to maintain their own personal standing within the existing order without resisting this anti-civilizational crusade.

There is so much more to this film than the baseline story of society’s outcasts finding success through unconventional means. Above all, The Greatest Showman is a tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit.

Unfortunately, under Trump’s vision, tyrannical foreign policy will continue, the drug war will continue, and those plagued by trauma run the risk of taking their own lives before the state allows them access to potentially lifesaving treatments.

A real push is also necessary in the economics trade itself. The most important step to put markets where they belong—in first place in the economic discussion. The greatest hope lies in the fostering of new institutions that will, in turn, nurture economics thinkers who dare to acknowledge the merits of markets.

There's a new measurement of economic activity called Gross Output. GO measures spending throughout the entire production process, at every entrepreneurial stage. This is consistent with economic growth theory – entrepreneurs drive growth.

What exactly do entrepreneurs do to steer the economic ship? The founder of the Austrian School, Carl Menger, had defined this very precisely in his 1871 book, Principles Of Economics. (We’ve known this stuff for a long time.)

In the market, the individual takes the risk to find out if the results of his or her efforts create value for others, both moral and commercial. Everyone does their best, and the preferences of consumers tell producers what to produce more of and less of.

Selgin explains that Hayek, “believed that the general level of output prices should be allowed to vary in response to changes in factor productivity, falling in response to both anticipated and unanticipated improvements in productivity, and rising in response to any productivity setback."

What is perhaps most intriguing about Halo Top is its refusal to do things in the traditional way. But it is this innovative mindset and the ability to learn from mistakes that have helped Halo Top become such a success.

If Trump wants to leave behind a legacy that promotes free market principles, he needs to adopt a consistent message across the board. And while he should definitely continue with the tax cuts, our economy can do without the rampant protectionism.

Having set a goal to read all the economic classics I never got around to, Mises’ Liberalism was high on my reading list. Utterly exhausted yet intrigued after liveblogging F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, I was ready for a change of writing style while still exploring the roots of classical liberalism.

So-called socially responsible investing purports to seek out companies who contribute most to society. Profits are the signal that society benefits from a company's commercial activities. Look no further.

Professor Skousen relates marginal value to investing in the stock market. First, all prices on the stock market are created by a relatively few marginal buyers and sellers. Only a few of them call their broker or click the trade button on their E-Trade dashboard on any given day. Therefore, it takes only a marginal shift in investor sentiment to change the direction or accelerate the movement of stock prices on that day.

Instead of getting bogged down by failure because you were not able to fully cut sugar from your diet or because you failed to visit the gym as often as you had hoped, why not treat your own life like the market and celebrate failure as a tool for growth.

In 1944, economist philosopher F.A. Hayek published his book The Road to Serfdom. The pages of this classic work warn of the dangers our civilization is sure to meet if we continued to subscribe to collectivist ideologies, both in economics and politics.

The emergent technologies of A.I., cloud computing, and global talent and commerce platforms will place increased demands on each of us to define our specialist value, specialist skills and specialist contribution in the interconnected global economy. These are the aptitudes required to meet those demands.

We can all ask ourselves the individual entrepreneur's questions: Who Am I? What Do I Know? Who Do I Know? What Are My Resources? How Do I Contribute? How Do I Serve Others? Technology will be an augmenting factor, helping the individual to answer these questions and support the action plan that emerges.

The more government involves itself in health care, the harder it becomes to find quality services at affordable prices. As the state has inserted itself more heavily into the health sector over the last several years, many Americans are left searching for alternatives to traditional services.

Spontaneous order is the happy result that emerges as the best outcome for all participants when there is no government, no hierarchy, no control and no central direction, just a few general rules that apply to everyone equally. When systems are left to operate under these conditions, order emerges. There's now a process that captures the concept: inverse design.

There are innumerable reasons to oppose any continuation or escalation of the American occupation of Afghanistan. But disregarding the most important deterrent, the loss of human life, and even more specifically, innocent civilian life, there is one economic principle that screams out from the text of a recent Trump’s speech on America’s involvement in Afghanistan: The sunk cost fallacy.

Last week, Taylor Swift’s new album officially became available on all streaming platforms. This may not seem like exciting news. After all, most albums are available on Spotify. And, the album was already released for purchase almost a month earlier.

Digital entrepreneurs - "inno-mediaries" - are shaping markets as they create the new ways of developing, diffusing and using knowledge, and new ways to generate and promote innovation. They encourage new innovators to enter into the co-creation of innovation by enabling new practices through the use of diverse resources.

There can be no denying the important role that F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom has played on the study of free market economics. And while the book is responsible for swaying public opinion and presenting an alternative to centrally planned economies, the book was written in such a way that may be hard for many modern readers to comprehend. And many suspect that Hayek may have actually intended the book to be this way.

John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek were both influential men of their time. But, as discussed in the first two parts of this series, they both had very different views on how the economy should operate.

John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek are two of the most controversial economic figures of the 20th century. Both made huge contributions to the field of economics and both stand in direct opposition to each other, which is one reason why they have presented such a fascinating juxtaposition over the last century.

As a Millennial, I will admit that I’ve never seen the original Miracle on 34thStreet. However, the 1994 remake of the film holds a special place in my heart. While watching the film again for the first time in almost 15 years, I realized something I had never noticed before: the film is a wonderful lesson in human action and the basic principles of free market economics.

The lessons that can be learned from F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom are so numerous it would be almost impossible to list them all. But after taking the time to dive into this classic piece of economic literature, I compiled a list of what I consider to be the most important lessons one can learn while strolling down The Road to Serfdom.

You can design your own education, be your own content editor, create your own enterprise of one, or make flexible work choices tailored to your needs and preferences. Most importantly, you can adhere to your own individual values and construct your own personal brand.

When I decided to read and live-blog The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek, I will admit I did not fully understand what I had signed up to do. Reading excerpts from the book is one thing, but endeavoring to read the book in its entirety and also write my accompanying thoughts was an entirely different feat altogether.

In the previous chapter of The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek spelled out his concerns for the problems facing America in the aftermath of WWII. Moving away from discussing domestic policy, in chapter 15, “The Prospects of International Order” Hayek discusses the grave problems associated with global governance.

In chapter 14 of The Road to Serfdom, “Material Conditions and Ideal Ends,” Hayek focuses on the path forward now that the Second World War was coming to an end. Specifically, he explains that calling on the state to coercively act in the name of the “greater good” is not a moral act worthy of praise.

To most people, an “anything goes” approach on the road seems crazy, to say the least. And why shouldn’t it?Cars weigh thousands of pounds and once moving at high speeds are essentially large deathtraps all charging towards each other. On its own, this concept is concerning enough without having to imagine what would happen in the absence of all traffic signals. How would cars know when to stop and when to go?

England, which, as explained in the last chapter, represented the origin of individualist thought, had steadily been heading down a similar road as Germany had in the decades prior to WWII. While it may have taken a different form, when looked at from the perspective of totalitarianism in all things economic, England, as it stood in 1944, had taken swift strides away from liberalism and instead found itself headed in the direction of complete central authority.

Americans just want a better chance of achieving success themselves – they do not want redistributive government policies, they want ones that give everyone a fair shot at success, reflecting bedrock American belief in the individual’s ability to succeed through hard work.

Throughout the last three chapters of The Road to Serfdom, I have found myself questioning whether or not I am reading the same book as I was before. In chapters 1-11, Hayek went from being an economist to a philosopher, to a historian. But in chapter twelve, “The Socialist Roots of Naziism,” Hayek takes on the role of biographer.

Most people alive in America today have probably never had the experience of sending a telegram. There are a host of reasons for this, the main one being that the telegram stopped being fashionable decades ago as burgeoning technology replaced its use in the modern world. The very last Western Union telegram was sent 11 years ago.

In chapter 10 of The Road to Serfdom, Hayek describes how some of the worst people always end up rising to the top of the political heap. Continuing to touch on this theme in the eleventh chapter, Hayek digs even deeper and discusses the control of information and the very basis of truth in a planned society.

Every so often, stories of outrageous surge pricing in the ridesharing industry make their way around the internet. As these stories typically go, a rider was shocked upon reaching their final destination to find that they were charged sometimes hundreds of dollars for a trip that might normally cost $20-30.

By translating their "kosmos" perceptions into behavior in the "taxis" without the owners’ approval, the players are crossing a line that disrupts order. The "kosmos" and the "taxis" must co-exist but not conflict.

Our human brains do not seem to be able to understand or conceive of a system of emergent order for the social organization of the species. We insist on a linear vision of cause and effect, on hubristic processes of design, and on rigid authoritarian and hierarchical social structures.

The new norm may be something like “Make yourself as uniquely useful as you can as a collaborator with other knowledgeable actors” and may result in institutionalized education, institutionalized professions, and institutionalized jobs withering away to be replaced with totally new forms.

The world we live in is full of unpredictable, individual actors. This alone has been enough to justify state intervention in almost every aspect of our lives since the very first governments were formed among men.

Individualism wants everyone to be free and equally equipped at the beginning, in order to try their best, each in their own way. The market - the voluntary decisions of individuals to exchange goods and services in a win-win exchange - delivers a verdict on which efforts are worthy of reward by customer acceptance. Professor McCloskey calls the outcome of the process "trade-tested betterment".

Super-connecting is the new metaphor of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur today is an orchestrator, a super-connector of knowledge, technology, collaborators and capital. All of these inputs are available in real time as a result of today’s technologies.

The maturing technologies of cloud computing, cognitive computing, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, global exchange and logistics platforms can all provide the individual with self-directed, self-resourcing economic power. If the old institutions decay around us, we need not worry, because the new ones are forming and will serve us much better.

Here at https//:centerforindividualism.org, we certainly believe that the emerging technologies of cloud computing, global exchange platforms, artificial intelligence and blockchain can augment individual capabilities and release us from collectivism and dependent relationships on governments and corporations. However, we also recognize that, in the hands of bad actors, there are modern technologies that can be employed for the opposite purpose: the subjection of individuals.

Whether you advocate some form of socialism or express nationalist sympathies, both are contrary to the spirit of individualism. Both claim to advance freedom but inevitably lead down the road to serfdom.

Technology is fundamental to new learning strategies. In a sense, technology is the new institution. As the old institution decays, technology advances, responding to the changing needs and preferences of consumers.

Millennials are shaking up traditional industries and refusing to conduct business as usual. As a result, our economy is becoming more specialized and better able to cater to the unique interests of the individual.

what is particularly fascinating about Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is that his success was built on the precepts of free market capitalism, without which he would have never risen above the circumstances he was born into.

While those in underbanked regions have been largely left out of participating in the global economy, the invention of smartphones has made blockchain technology and thus, cryptocurrency a major game changer.

Government statistics paint an excessively grim picture of what is happening to real wages and the growth of real national income. They overtly downplay increases in quality of life and the ever increasing value offered in the marketplace.

In the USA, broad and deep government control is preferred to individual freedom of action; that control is continuously advancing and strengthening; and those who resist the control are met with coercive constraint.

Individualism is on trial. Its proponents claim that it encourages social progress and generates economic opportunity. Its accusers contend that it breeds selfishness and economic injustice. But what does the evidence show?

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